Infrastructure platforms have evolved from a hardware-defined internet era to a software-defined cloud era, accelerating to an AI-defined era for AI/GenAI applications including agentic workloads. It has become increasingly critical for load balancing to adopt the cloud operating model which accelerates consumption with self-service and automation, elasticity with auto-scale, auto-healing and automated lifecycle management, as well as intelligence and rapid issue resolution with application latency analytics.
VMware Avi Load Balancer provides plug-and-play load balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) with a one platform approach – a single declarative API for infrastructure admins and developers. Avi offers local and global load balancing, Kubernetes ingress and web application security tightly integrated with VCF for all workloads (VMs, containers, AI and bare metal workloads).
With VCF 9.0 integrations, Avi helps achieve the following:
- One unified cloud operating model for any environment and any workload
- Automated lifecycle management of Avi controllers through VCF Operations
- Consistent workload support through integrations with vSphere Supervisor control plane for load balancing VMs and vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS)
- Easy deployment of Avi Load Balancer in the VCF IaaS after VCF Import converts vSphere clusters to VCF domains
- One Consistent experience for infrastructure admins and developers
- Consume load balancing as code and as self-service via VCF Automation integrations with built-in service catalog automation
- Self-management and resource isolation per tenant with multi-tenancy support
- Simplified virtual private cloud (VPC) support for deployments including centralized transit gateway (CTGW), vCenter and VKS
- One secure and application resilient platform for integrated local and global load balancing, container ingress, web application and API security
- Kubernetes ingress and Gateway API for VKS workloads in VCF 9.0
- Web application firewall (WAF) across multiple VCF 9.0 workload domains to protect all applications
- Application resiliency through global server load balancing (GSLB) for multiple VCF 9.0 instances across regions, sites and availability zones (AZs)
Plug-n-Play Load Balancing with a Cloud Operating Model for VCF
It’s important to have load balancing done right throughout the VCF application lifecycle: build, operate, consume and protect.
- Build and Operate with VCF Operations to simplify lifecycle management including easy deployment via VCF Import, password rotation and application visibility
- Consume LB as code and as self-service with VCF Automation integrations
- Protect with web application and API security for all VCF workloads (VM & containers)
1. Build and Operate Avi Load Balancer with VCF Operations
Customers deploy private clouds to cut costs and simplify operations. Here are a few out of the box capabilities that Avi help VCF customers build and operate their private cloud:
Infrastructure readiness through native integrations: VCF admins can opt to import vSphere clusters to VCF domains or start with new VCF workloads, then deploy Avi via VCF Operations into the VCF infrastructure. Through the integrations with vCenter and NSX, Avi auto-configures and auto-discovers infrastructure objects and network inventory including virtual IP allocation, DNS registration and routing table updates. Avi automatically deploys load balancers with anti-affinity rules to enhance application availability, resiliency and scalability.
Automated lifecycle management without manual interventions: The advantage of this integrated approach is that the lifecycle of load balancers are automated including spin-up and spin-down of load balancing services, scale-out and scale-in of elastic capacity and more, which greatly simplifies operations and reduces errors. The interoperability of Avi with all the VCF components is verified for target versions before deploying. Avi supports password and certificate rotation to ensure security, and most importantly provides end-to-end application latency analytics with unique insights into application.
2. Consume Avi Load Balancing with VCF Automation
The Avi integration with VCF Automation provides cloud admins and developers one consistent experience to consume load balancing as code and as self-service. This enables a cloud-like consumption model for load balancing, empowering developers and application teams to deploy and manage load balancers rapidly and securely without deep load balancer expertise, while IT retains complete control and oversight. Here are a few highlights:
Self-Service Catalog: VCF Automation provides a service catalog where DevOps or app admins curate load balancing service offerings in Blueprint tailored to different teams or users based on roles, org, projects, and regions, with clearly defined policies. Avi is available as a catalog tile with easy self-service consumption and faster application onboarding for both virtualized and container workloads.
Load Balancing as Code: VCF Automation supports YAML-based IaC templates that define load balancing infrastructure and configurations, enabling repeatable and version-controlled deployments. Alternatively, Avi provides plugins for automation tools like Ansible and Terraform, allowing customers to consume load balancing as code programmatically via APIs and automation workflows. This enables DevOps teams to embed load balancing provisioning into their CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation scripts.
Multi-Tenancy and VPC: Avi supports VCF multi-tenancy and VPC with VCF Automation that allows each tenant to easily manage resource isolation, provide granular control for different roles and set business policies based on application needs. The integrations provide flexibility and faster deployments with easy Connectivity profiles for different deployment typologies.
3. Protect VCF Workloads Against Web Attacks with Avi Web Application and API Security
One thing that cannot be overlooked is application security, especially for public facing web applications and vulnerable APIs that are not protected. Avi provides:
Kubernetes Ingress and Gateway API: Avi provides a consolidated container services for ingress controller, Gateway API, DNS/IPAM and GSLB across multiple Kubernetes clusters, AZs and sites. Most importantly, Avi’s 100% API-based platform supports both virtual and container workloads in a consistent manner.
Granular Web Application Security: starting March 2025, WAF is a mandatory requirement for public facing web applications per PCI 6.4 compliance. Avi provides a centralized and scalable platform for managing web application security policies across multiple VCF workload domains. Avi offers WAF to protect against OWASP Top 10 attacks but also a comprehensive set of security capabilities including, DDoS protection, rate limiting and bot detection.
Application Resiliency: Avi provides GSLB, active-active high availability, elastic auto-scaling and auto-healing to ensure 24/7 application availability and resiliency. Avi also offers robust disaster recovery use cases. Many enterprises with large-scale deployments rely on critical applications running smoothly for multiple VCF instances across regions, sites and AZs.
Join Us at VMware Explore 2025
Mark your calendars for August 25-28, 2025! We will be sharing all the details of these new innovations at VMware Explore 2025 in Las Vegas.
